A/N: Sorry about the long wait. Apparently real life doesn't like to wait for writing to be done.
Chapter 6: Bianca
You are completely stupid, Bianca told herself. She had been intending to just head out of town after a sit in the park. Snivy had spotted a lass and her mother standing watch over a cardboard box on one of the walkways. 'free to gud home' was scrawled on the side in a child's messy handwriting.
She knew Papa was right; she was too emotional. But when Bianca saw the four lillipuppies huddled together for warmth in a corner of the box, something within her snapped.
Bianca raced to the pokemon center and purchased a thin green collar. She returned tot he park and selected her new pokemon.
Thankfully the mother wanted to get rid of the puppies quickly. In a few minutes, the three of them parted ways. Bianca's new pokemon trotted behind her, a minimized pokeball dangling from his new collar.
The road to striation city bathed in the sunset's red light. Bianca followed the straight path that ran beside the road and hummed a lilting tune. Lillipup ran back and forth across the road, only staying near Bianca when a transport truck lumbered by.
Lillipup loved the air and sunshine she could tell, unlike Snivy who was just content to be. And why shouldn't he? Lillipup's former home was the dark and cold corner of an old box, but out here he was free.
Lillipup stopped running and sniffed the air again, his nose twitching. Bianca stared at him. She knew he was doing something different, but the real question was 'how different?' For all she knew, this was something normal for him.
"What is it?" She asked her new pokemon. "What do you smell?" The lillipup stared at Bianca for a second, contemplating the question before trotting off. He would put his nose to the ground, then up to the sky sampling the breeze and then back down to the ground again.
Bianca followed at a sedate pace. When Lillipup started barking and rushed into the taller weeds, she rushed after him. Bianca had been expecting to find lillipup tussling with some feral purrloin, but instead he stared down a slim leather journal and growled.
Bianca looked closely at it. The brown leather was worn and pages were dog-eared. tiny bookmarks in multiple colors danced along the spine. The gold lettering on the face was mostly worn off but she could make out some letters. H-R, N, I-R-O.
It couldn't be. She picked up the journal and flipped through it. There was his list of starters he had painstakingly analyzed, each strength and weakness marked. 'Oshawott' had been ircled and then crossed out and then darkly underlined.
Flipping past a detailed sketch of Hilda Henderson laughing, Bianca found a map of the outer islands pasted in along with a stat printout for frillish. Scrawled in the margin was a note "tt Hils re eggs!" and circled.
Bianca couldn't breathe. There was no doubt about it, this was Cheren's journal, but some part of her still doubted it. He would never leave it lying near a road for a random person to pick up. Cheren was probably near here and looking for it now. She would return it.
Bianca stood up and circled around looking for Cheren. When she couldn't see him immediately, she scratched Snivy and asked her to see if she could sense him at all. Snivy's tongue flicked out and she too began to growl.
"Where?" Bianca asked. Snivy slunk down from her perch and disappeared into the bordering woods. Lillipup trotted after her and Bianca after him.
The woods were quiet. No pidove trilled, no liepard yowled. It was still and oppressive. Bianca cringed as Lillipup darted into a hollow. He barked, the sound painfully loud. He kept barking and she quickened my pace. The barks were more intense now and she began to jog.
Lillipup was alternately yapping and scratching at a long pile of overturned dirt. He saw Bianca and stopped barking but doubled his digging pace.
When Lillipup uncovered a head of dark hair, Bianca screamed.